06DUBLIN1078

Meeting with Department of Transport officials to discuss Ireland's interpretation of munitions of war and the notification requirements for military material shipments. The US Defense Attaché (DATT) referred to "recently more cumbersome notification requirements" which might edge Shannon closer to a "tipping point"
in terms of the difficulty of processing U.S. milair transits.
A Department of Transport officer, Robin McKay, said that the Government had undertaken a review largely because U.S. commercial carriers had been shipping munitions through Shannon (reference to the shipment of Apache helicopters to Israel that passed through Shannon). But McKay also stressed that the long-standing
Irish policy of permitting U.S. access to Shannon was not subject to reversal.